


Adventures in Being Babysat

by Aaronlisa



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jossverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-07
Updated: 2012-05-07
Packaged: 2017-11-04 23:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/pseuds/Aaronlisa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and company. </p><p>Prompts: Insert Dawn into season 3 of BTVS. I'd like to see her interact with Faith and/or Cordelia. Other characters are fine too.</p><p>Notes: Written for an older round of the CyA Ficathon.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Adventures in Being Babysat

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and company. 
> 
> Prompts: Insert Dawn into season 3 of BTVS. I'd like to see her interact with Faith and/or Cordelia. Other characters are fine too.
> 
> Notes: Written for an older round of the CyA Ficathon.

Dawn watches as her sister comes home from another night at the Bronze. Her sister looks irritated and annoyed with something, Dawn knows better than to ask what. Dawn wonders if slaying tonight was harder than normal. Whatever it is, she'll probably hear a watered down version of it at breakfast tomorrow morning when their mother asks what happened. Dawn sighs and creeps back to bed. It wouldn't do for her sister to catch her. 

* * *

Faith is awesome. 

Unlike Buffy, Faith isn't completely uptight. Faith seems to think that being a Slayer means having fun. What's even better is Faith's been assigned baby sitting duties at the library. Dawn's pretty certain that this means that Buffy and her friends are going to sneak out to the Bronze instead of patrolling. At least Faith doesn't treat her like a little kid like Giles does. 

"Hey," Faith calls out.

"Hi Faith," Dawn says, trying to act cool instead of bouncing in her seat. 

"Where's B and the others?" 

"They've already left," Dawn bitterly responds. 

She doesn't bother to tell Faith how glad Buffy was to get rid of her. Buffy always seems to act like she's more of a nuisance than anything else. Faith purses her lips together like she wants to say something but she's worried it might get back to Buffy. Dawn's smart enough to know that there's no way she can reassure the dark haired Slayer that she has no intention of telling tales to Buffy. 

"So what do you want to do Dawn?" Faith asks. 

Dawn shrugs her shoulders, trying to imitate the causal way that Faith has. She knows she miserably fails when Faith laughs at her. However the rich laughter that falls out of Faith's mouth doesn't seem to hurt her like it does when Buffy and her friends laugh at her and ruffle her hair like she's five years old. She knows that Faith gets it when she wraps an arm around her thin shoulders and smirks down at her. 

"Wanna piss B off?" Faith asks. 

Dawn looks up at her with a wide grin. "Yeah." 

Pissing B (or Buffy as Dawn still feels obligated to call her sister) involves hanging out at the all night arcade that's just straddling the line between the bad part of Sunnydale and the good part. It's not that far from the Bronze but Dawn knows her sister would never ever think to look for her here. In the daylight, the place's not too bad. At night, it's kind of scary. The older kids who hang out here at night, wear almost all black and whether they're boy or girl, their eyes are ringed in heavy dark makeup. The air is heavy with cigarette smoke but Dawn tries to act like she's not uncomfortable. 

Faith gives her a pocket full of tokens and drops her off at a game. For a while, Dawn thinks that hanging out with Faith isn't really that different than hanging out with Buffy. She's left alone and she's rather bored. About twenty minutes later, Faith comes back to her, Dawn notices that her ruby-red lipstick looks a little smudged and Faith's pulling on her jean jacket. Faith rolls her eyes at Dawn with a smirk on her lips. 

"Let's go," Faith says. 

Dawn follows her out and proceeds to go on her first vampire hunt. Faith tells her that she had to get some info from the guy who runs the place. Dawn nods at her like this is a common occurrence in her life. She acts like she knows what she's doing, even after Faith corrects her awkward hold on the stake. Dawn doesn't actually _kill_ a vampire but she still feels the rush of excitement when Faith kills it and the vampire explodes into a fine cloud of ash and dust that coats the both of them. 

They grin at one another before Faith holds out her hand and Dawn high fives the older girl. They wind up at the ice cream parlour where Faith buys her an ice cream cone and they leisurely walk back to the library. They only beat Buffy and her friends by a few minutes and Dawn's trying to figure out she can ask Faith to stay with her every time Buffy needs a babysitter without it looking suspicious. 

When Buffy asks her how her night was, Dawn manages to capture Faith's attitude in an eye roll and a dramatic sigh.

"Boring, why couldn't I just stay home?" Dawn says. 

* * *

Faith's defection to the dark side has hit her hard. Dawn feels like she' s living in some sort of cheesy melodrama. Faith had never given her any sign of being evil but there she is living it up while she tries to help the Mayor win. No matter what, Dawn knows that her sister is not going to allow that to happen. Buffy might be annoying but Dawn knows her sister isn't going to let the apocalypse come and ruin everything. 

Somehow Dawn manages to hide the hurt she feels. She had thought that Faith was really her friend, that Faith had really cared. Now she's not certain what she should think. Should she believe that Faith was only using her to get closer to Buffy? Was she just an annoyance for the brunette Slayer that pushed her over to the other side? 

Dawn sighs as she rests her chin on the curve of her arms. It's another night at the library, this time Cordelia's her babysitter. Cordelia who sits there flipping through a fashion magazine, filing her nails. Dawn's not even sure why Cordelia even bothers to do anything for the Scoobies since Willow and Xander had cheated on her and Oz with one another; something that neither Dawn nor Buffy would ever have expected from the pair. 

Cordelia slaps her magazine on the table and looks at Dawn. 

"Would you quit staring at me!" Cordelia icily says. "It's bad enough that I have to play babysitter because Buffy's out _patrolling_ and your mother has a date, I don't need you to stare at me." 

The way in which Cordelia says patrolling implies that she's well aware that patrolling for Buffy often means winding up at the Bronze afterwards. Dawn wonders why her sister is so selfish at times. It's pretty obvious that Faith would rather be anywhere else than here. 

"I'm bored." 

"So read a book," Cordelia says. 

"Buffy doesn't like it when I read Giles' books," Dawn says with a pout. 

"Do I look like I am Buffy?" 

"No," Dawn says. 

"Then read away!" 

"But I don't want to," Dawn replies. 

Cordelia sighs as she picks up her purse. "Fine, come on then." 

Dawn follows the former cheerleader and wonders where they're going. As they slide into her car, Dawn just hopes that she hasn't pushed the brunette too far. Cordelia doesn't say a word as she drives to the center of town. Dawn hates how small Sunnydale is, she sometimes wishes they were back in LA, where the city was always awake. Here in Sunnydale, most of the stores are closed. Dawn worries for a moment that Cordelia is going to ruin her mother's date, but they walk past the fancy restaurant until they're standing in front of a beauty salon. 

Cordelia smiles at Dawn. "I think a manicure is in order." 

 

It turns out that manicures are pretty boring. Well the in-between bits, when you're waiting for your nails to dry. Especially since Cordelia gossips with the girl working on her hands. Apparently her social status at school might be in the gutter but Cordelia can still gossip about all the rich families of Sunnydale. She starts to feel a little drowsy as she listens to Cordelia and before she knows it, Cordelia is gently shaking her awake. 

She sleepily follows Cordelia out to the car and slides in. Cordelia gives her a victorious grin. 

"I've still got it," Cordelia says. "I might not be rich anymore but I've still got it." 

Dawn's not quite sure what Cordelia means. It doesn't really make sense that Cordelia's not rich anymore. But Cordelia arches an eyebrow at her. 

"Don't be telling your sister what I just said, I don't need Buffy Summers' pity. It was bad enough when she was trying to be nice because of her reject friends." 

Dawn shrugs her shoulders in response. The rest of the trip back to the school is quiet. 

"Look Dawn, I know you hate this as much as I do," Cordelia says. "But in a month or two, this will all be over for the both of us, one way or another." 

"You're not thinking of going over to the Mayor too?" Dawn asks, her eyes wide. 

Cordelia laughs. "I am not skanky enough and besides I don't think him winning will allow me to take Hollywood by storm. Or maybe more accurately in the way that I want to take it." 

"What are you going to do _after_?" Dawn asks. 

"I am going to go to LA and try to make it as an actress. There's nothing left for me here." 

"But Xander..." 

Cordelia interrupts her with a snort. "Even if I was still with Xander, it wouldn't have lasted past graduation." 

Dawn doesn't know what to say about that. Cordelia sighs and her expression softens. 

"Look I know you're not just some kid and all but it's hard to explain. I love Xander but he's not going to leave Buffy is he? He's always going to be here for _her_ and where does that leave me?" 

They fall into a silence and Dawn knows without being told that this isn't a conversation to share with Buffy or even her mother. She wishes that she still had Faith to talk to. At least with Faith it was always about having fun.. Dawn stares down at her manicured nails and wonders if Buffy or her mom are going to get mad about them. She quite likes the purple shade she'd picked out even if Cordelia had said it was too trendy to remain in style for longer than a week. 

 

* * *

 

She was kept home safe and sound from the battle that raged on for the graduating class of 1999. Dawn has mixed feelings about it as she sits on the hard hospital chair and watches Faith. Cordelia and Angel are gone and Faith is in a coma. Next summer, her sister and Willow are off to college and Xander's already gone on his road trip. Buffy's been complaining to their mother that Dawn doesn't have friends her own age and that she's always tagging along with Buffy and Willow. 

Dawn sighs as she leaves the small card on the bedside table. What does Buffy expect when her life is full of vampires and demons because of her sister? It's not as if Dawn can really tell kids her own age about what really lurks out in the night or how sister keeps people safe. Dawn leans over Faith and presses a kiss against the Slayer's temple. 

((END))


End file.
